COURSE of the MONTH

Cannot Join Domain from remote office? - The Network path was not found

OK, raising the white flag here! :)
We recently opened a new office and we have a brand new Windows 2008 R2 Server setup there for which I have remote access (RDP). There is a site to site VPN between that office and our HQ. I have setup DNS to point to our HQ DC/DNS servers. I can ping the DC/DNS servers and the FQDN by name from this new remote server, i.e. ping mydomain.rootdomain.com. However, when I attempt to join the domain, I am initially prompted as normal for username/pass of authorized user, but after a minute it times out with the following error. "The following error occurred attempting to join the domain "mydomain.rootdomain.com": The network path was not found.

Who is Participating?

There is some connection refused when joining domain?
Please run the following command, on the member desktop or server:
NETSTAT -NA 1 |find "SYN"
When running, try to join the domain again and see if this command show anything.
Please post the results...

If it shows... there possibly have a firewall problem on your structure...

I should add that the network team confirmed that the connection between HQ and this office is wide open, no firewall. OS Firewall is also turned off. The netstat showed activity from the server to the DC via ports 445 and 139, but oddly the source IP flapping/changing. This server has dual NIC's. I've asked the local tech to pull the cable from "Local Area Connection 2" and disable it in the OS. I'll try again after that... Will let you know what happens.

You said that:
"The netstat showed activity from the server to the DC via ports 445 and 139"

So, if you've wrote the command as I mentioned in my post, you for sure have Firewall problems and need to open those ports between the networks.

Since you open it, you'll be able to proceed with the join domain.

Verify too if you have some personal firewall (even Windows Firewall) enabled on you machine, ou some antivirus with Threat response (Mcafee, Symantec...) These can be blocking "Site-External" connections

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dkrautAuthor Commented: 2010-09-28

You guys were right, after determining that I could not telnet to the DC's via port 445 and 139 from this remote server, but could from my desktop, I called the network guys on this one and they suddenly lost their amnesia and remembered that did indeed have some ports blocked. :|
Once they removed the block, all was well. Wow, what a waste of time and effort, but I appreciate the assistance!!